BOUK XXI. XLV. 77-78 



XLV. There is another kind of honey, foiind in 

 the same district of Pontus among the people called 

 Sanni, which from the madness it produces is 

 called maenomenon." This poison is supposed to 

 be extracted from the flowers of the oleanders 

 which abound in the woods. Thouiih these people 

 supplv the Romans with wax by way of tribute, the 

 honey, because of its deadly nature, they do not sell. 

 In Persis, too, and in GaetuHa of Mauretania 

 Caesariensis, bordering on the Massaesyli, are found 

 poisoned honeycombs, sometimes only in part such, 

 a more deceptive limitation than anything else could 

 be, were it not that the Hvid colour makes detection 

 easy. What are we to think that Nature meant by 

 these traps ; that they should not occur every year, 

 and not in the whole of the comb, and yet be due to 

 the same bees ? Was it not enough to have pro- 

 duced a substance in which it was very easy to 

 administer poison ? Did Nature also administer 

 it herself in the honey to so many Hving creatures ? 

 What did she mean, except to make man more 

 careful and less greedy ? For had she not ah-eady 

 bestowed upon the bees themselves a spear, and 

 that a poisoned one, so that a cure for this poison 

 must be given most assuredly without delay ? 

 Accordingly, it is heahng to «ipply to the sting the 

 juice of the mallow or of ivy leaves, or for the stung 

 persons to take these in drink. Yet it is wonderful 

 that the bees, carrying poison in their mouths and 

 working it, do not themselves die, unless it be 

 that the great Mistress of all things has given bees 

 this immunity, as she has given immunity against 

 snake-bite to the PsylH and to the Marsi among 

 men. 



217 



